Below is the new draft of the Roadmap chapter of our whitepaper. It reviews the first two phases of the network (Beta and Testnet), and introduces the Mainnet phase in more detail. Your feedback is welcome before we update the official whitepaper on our website when Open Network begins. Keep in mind that we are also working on new drafts of other whitepaper chapters and will release them soon, which will potentially further clarify questions you may have now.
Roadmap
Pi Network is unique in our technological and ecosystem design as well as the significance of our community input in development. This uniqueness is best served by a thoughtful and iterative approach that allows for community feedback, testing of products, features, and user experience, and phases defined by milestones. There are three main phases to our development: (1) Beta, (2) Testnet, and (3) Mainnet.
Phase 1: Beta
In December 2018, we publicly launched our mobile app on the iOS App store as an alpha prototype that onboarded the initial Pioneers. On Pi Day, March 14, 2019, the original Pi whitepaper was published, marking the official launch of the Pi Network. At this stage, our app allowed Pioneers to mine Pi by contributing to the growth and security of the future Pi blockchain. As the eventual goal was to launch the Mainnet and build an ecosystem around the Pi platform, the Pi app running on the centralized Pi server enabled mobile phone users (Pioneers) to contribute their security circles that, in aggregate, built the trust graph required by the consensus algorithm of the Pi Blockchain, and in return, the Pioneers received mining rewards. Furthermore, the centralized phase allowed the network to grow, the community to form, and the Pi token to be accessible and widely distributed. This phase also allowed for the iteration of many technical features and Pioneer experience by leveraging community input throughout the development process.
The following major accomplishments were made during the Beta phase:
- The Pi Network mobile app was listed and accessible through the iOS App Store and Google Playstore.
- Pi Network grew from 0 to over 3.5 million engaged Pioneers.
- The Pi Network community actively engaged with the project through the app home screen interactions and chat app.
- Pi Network reached 233 countries and regions around the world.
Phase 2: Testnet
This phase started on March 14, 2020, marking another critical preparation to the transition to a decentralized blockchain—a live Testnet with distributed Nodes from all over the world. Pi Network’s Node software enabled individual computers to support running the Pi Testnet using Test-Pi coin. Test-Pi was available only for the purpose of testing and has no relation to Pioneers’ account balances on the Pi app. The Pi Testnet has reached over 10,000 fully functional community Nodes and over 100,000 daily active Nodes on the waiting list, and as explained in a later section, will continue to exist for testing purposes in the Mainnet phase.
Pi Testnet allows for the testing of connectivity, performance, security, and scalability of the blockchain, and allows Pi apps developers to develop the Pi apps before they can deploy their app on the Mainnet. During the Testnet phase, 3 major strategies were adopted: (1) decentralization through Testnet Nodes, (2) growth through the main Pi app for mobile mining, and (3) utility creation through the Pi apps platform on the Pi Browser. The Testnet ran in parallel with the Pi mobile mining app from Phase 1 and enabled decentralized community Nodes to get online and ready for the Mainnet. Specifically, the Testnet Nodes helped with the assessment of the blockchain’s performance, security, and scalability. It also helped Pi App developers test their apps against the Pi Blockchain. At the same time, the Pi mobile mining app continued to onboard millions of Pioneers, building the community and contributing to the security of the blockchain. The Pi Browser, along with the Pi SDK, enabled the community to create utilities and develop the Pi ecosystem.
The following major accomplishments were made during the Testnet phase:
- Many versions of the Node software were released.
- The Pi Platform was released along with key ingredients of our ecosystem infrastructure: Wallet, Browser, Brainstorm and developer tools.
- Pilot version of the KYC app was introduced on the Pi Browser.
- The project ran its first ever worldwide online Hackathon with thousands of participants from within the Pioneer Community.
- Pi Network grew to over 30 million engaged Pioneers, and from 0 to over 10,000 fully functional community Nodes and over 100,000 daily active Nodes on the waiting list.
- Pi Network reached almost all countries and regions in the world.
Phase 3: Mainnet
In December 2021, the Mainnet of the Pi blockchain will go live. The migration of Pioneer balances from their phone account to the Mainnet starts during this period. KYC authentication of a Pioneer precedes their balance migration to the Mainnet. In order to allow for sufficient time for millions of Pioneers to successfully complete their KYC verification, create utilities in the Pi ecosystem, and continue to iterate on our technology and ecosystem design, the Mainnet will have two periods:
- at first, firewalled Mainnet (i.e., the Enclosed Network),
- and then, open Mainnet (i.e., the Open Network).
The Enclosed Network Period
This period will begin in December 2021. The Enclosed Network period means that the Mainnet is live but with a firewall that prevents any unwanted external connectivity. Pioneers will be able to take time to KYC and migrate their Pi to the live Mainnet blockchain. Any balance migrated to the Mainnet can be used, by the choice of the Pioneer, to purchase goods and services in Pi apps, transfer to other Pioneers, or get locked up for a duration of time for a higher mining rate. KYC’ed Pioneers will be able to use their Pi on the Mainnet freely in an enclosed environment within Pi Network. However, this period will not allow connectivity between the Pi blockchain and other blockchains.
Advantages of the Two-Period Approach to Mainnet
There are multiple advantages to having anintermediate enclosed period to ramp up to the fully open Mainnet. This approach allows time for:
- millions of Pioneers worldwide to pass KYC,
- building and deploying more Pi Apps and allowing more utilities to be created and used,
- transitioning Pi Apps deployed on the Testnet to the Mainnet, and
- iterating on any modifications and adjustments to the Mainnet and the ecosystem before the Open Network.
The Enclosed Network period allows time for millions of Pioneers to KYC and migrate their Pi to the Mainnet. Only a small fraction of Pioneers have been able to complete their KYC around the launch of the Mainnet. Over the coming months, we will continue to roll out the KYC solution to more Pioneers and help them complete their KYC. If we moved directly from Testnet to Open Network, this would mean that the Pioneers who were able to KYC before others would have Pi available for use outside of the Pi platform while the Pioneers still waiting to complete their KYC would not yet have this privilege. The speed at which Pioneers all over the world are able to complete their KYC will depend on the speed at which each local community provides the KYC validator crowd work force as well as the speed at which individual Pioneers participate in the KYC.
Having the Enclosed Network period gives time for millions of Pioneers to complete their KYC and transfer their Pi to the Mainnet. This way, all the Pioneers who are willing and able to complete their KYC in a reasonable period of time get to use their Pi outside of the Pi platform at once. Given that external connectivity between the Pi Blockchain and other blockchains or systems is not allowed during the Enclosed Network period, this further helps Pioneers focus on transitioning into Mainnet without any influences external to the Pi Blockchain.
This period will also help the community focus on creating utilities and bootstrapping the ecosystem without any external distractions. Consistent with the vision of the Pi network to enable a utility-based ecosystem, this allows apps to deploy on Mainnet and create utilities for Pioneers. Pi apps will be able to switch from Testnet to Mainnet—to production mode for real Pi transactions. At this time, KYC’ed Pioneers will be able to spend their Pi on Pi apps, boosting utilities creation and bootstrapping the Pi ecosystem before the Open Network. This gradual and deliberate ramp to Open Network will help the apps, as well as the Pi Network, to uncover and resolve any glitches in the market and the technology. Thus, the Enclosed Network period is in line with Pi’s vision of a utility-based ecosystem and its iterative philosophy.
Moreover, the Enclosed Network will allow the Mainnet to run with production data and real Pi, which differs from Testnet. Data gathered during the Enclosed Network will help calibrate and tweak any configurations and formulae, if necessary, to ensure a stable and successful Open Network.
KYC Verification and Mainnet Balance Transfer
“Know Your Customer/Client” (KYC) is a process that verifies identification to distinguish genuine accounts from fake ones. The vision of Pi Network is to build an inclusive and the most widely distributed token and ecosystem for all Pioneers. The mining mechanism of Pi Network is social network-based, and the mining rate has halved 5 times so far as the social network size grew to over 1K, 10K, 100K, 1M, and 10M engaged members. Therefore, Pi has a strict policy of one account per person. This requires a high degree of accuracy to establish that members in the network are genuine human beings, preventing individuals from being able to unfairly hoard Pi by creating fake accounts. Pioneers’ KYC results will depend on not only identity verification, but also their name matching with the Pi account and screening against government sanction list. KYC, thus, helps ensure the true humanness of the network and compliance with the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and anti-terrorism regulations.
As communicated at the founding of the network, to ensure true humanness, fake Pi accounts and scripted mining are strictly prohibited. These accounts will be disabled, and will not be able to migrate to Mainnet. Over the past three years, multiple technical mechanisms have been implemented to identify bots and fake accounts. For the accounts identified as highly likely to be fake by Pi’s algorithm, the weight is on these accounts to prove otherwise. These identified fake accounts will either be disabled or go through a much more rigorous review and appeal process. The allocation of KYC slots will be prioritized for accounts with a high likelihood of being true human holders.
Only the accounts with verified identities will be allowed to transition to Mainnet, and only the Pi balances attributable to identity-verified accounts will be allowed to transfer to the Mainnet balance. When a Pioneer and their referral team and security circle members pass the KYC determines if and when, and to what extent, a Pioneer can transfer their balances. Below is a hypothetical example to illustrate how the KYC verification of Pioneers affects their balances in migration to the Mainnet.
For simplicity, we define different concepts of Pi balances as follows:
- Mobile Balance: The Pi balance currently shown in a Pioneer’s account in the Pi mobile app
- Transferable Balance: The balance that has been allowed to be transferred to the Mainnet because the Pioneer and their specific associated individuals in the referral teams and security circles have passed KYC
- Mainnet balance: The balance that has been migrated and transferred by the Pioneer to the Mainnet
Suppose individual A is the owner of a Pi account who wants to transfer their Mobile Balance. Pioneer A will only be allowed to transfer any of the Mobile Balance to the Mainnet when their identity is verified, i.e., when they pass the KYC. Let’s say this individual has Individuals B, C, D, and E on their referral team and Individuals D, E, F, and G in their security circle. So far, only individuals A, B, D, and F have completed their KYC verification.
In this example setup:
- A is a mining Pioneer who has passed KYC.
- B, C, D, E are in the Referral Team of A.
- D, E, F, G are in the Security Circle of A.
- A, B, D, and F have passed KYC.
Here, A’s Transferable Balance is the sum of the following three components:
- Pioneer Rewards: Pi mined based on A’s Pioneer status across all mining sessions
- Contributor Rewards: D and F’s contribution to A's mining rate as Contributors in all mining sessions
- Ambassador Rewards: Mining bonuses from all mining sessions when B and D as referral team members mined during the same session as A mined
As more of Pioneer A’s referral team and security circle members (i.e., C, E, and G) pass KYC, more portions of A’s Mobile Balance will become Transferable Balance—ready for A to migrate to the Mainnet, and ultimately become A’s Mainnet Balance.
During the Enclosed Mainnet period, any Mobile Balance that has not become Transferable Balance will remain in the Mobile mining app until the associated Pioneers in the referral team and security circles pass KYC and the corresponding amount becomes transferable to Mainnet. In the case of the above example of Pioneer A, the balance contribution by C, E, and G will remain as Mobile Balance for A in the mining app waiting for them to pass KYC in order for such balance to become transferable. If such associated accounts never pass KYC, the balance attributed to these non-KYC’ed accounts will expire at a certain date which will have allowed enough time for the whole network to KYC. The unclaimed balances due to lack of KYC will be discarded by not being transferred to the Mainnet at all.
Restrictions in the Enclosed Network
While transactions between Pi apps and Pioneers and Pioneer-to-Pioneer transactions are allowed within Pi Network, the Enclosed Network will have in place the restrictions as listed below. These restrictions at this stage help enforce the enclosed nature of the network:
- There will be no connectivity between Pi and other blockchains or crypto exchanges.
- Mainnet can only be accessed through the Pi Wallet and Pi apps on the Pi Browser.
- The Mainnet blockchain will be accessible to any computer on the internet but only through a firewall to enforce the above rules.
- There will only be Core Team Nodes on the Mainnet to ensure that the firewall is in place at all times.
The Enclosed Network will support the economic activities and growth of the Pi ecosystem. Thus, Pioneer-to-Pioneer transactions are possible through the Pi Wallet as KYC’ed Pioneers will be able to use the Pi Wallet to transact in Pi. Pioneers can also spend Pi in Pi apps on the Pi Browser, which can access the Mainnet through the Pi Apps SDK and the Pi Blockchain API. During the Enclosed Network period, an app on the Pi Browser can only use the Pi blockchain APIs whitelisted by the firewall to interact with the Mainnet.
The following uses of Pioneer-to-Pioneer, Pioneer-to-App, and App-to-Pioneer transactions will be allowed:
- Exchange of Pi for goods and services through Pi Apps
- Transfer of Pi between Pioneers for goods and services
The following uses will be prohibited:
- Exchange of Pi for fiat currency
- Exchange of Pi for other cryptocurrencies
- Transfer for Pi for a future promise of fiat or other cryptocurrencies
We will enforce the above restrictions by adding a firewall to the Mainnet and by exclusively running the Mainnet Nodes for this interim period. Community Nodes will continue to run on the Testnet in the Enclosed Network period. We will continue to implement interface and other changes to the Nodes in preparation for the Open Network period where the Community Nodes will be able to run on the Mainnet. The restrictions of the Network to keep it enclosed will be relaxed as it reaches the next period—Open Network.
The Open Network Period
Depending on the maturity of the Enclosed Network economy and the progress of the KYC, this period may begin on Pi Day (March 14, 2022), Pi2 Day (June 28, 2022), or later. The Open Network period means that the firewall in the Enclosed Network period will be removed, allowing any external connectivity, e.g., to other networks, wallets, and anyone who wants to connect to Pi Mainnet. API calls will not be firewalled, and Pioneers will be able to run their own Pi Nodes and API services. Pioneers will have connectivity with other blockchains. Community Nodes can also run the Mainnet.
